Researchers are finding out if implanting a “pacemaker-like” device in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease could help to stop the condition in its tracks.
“Recent failures in Alzheimer’s disease trials using drugs such as those designed to reduce the buildup of beta amyloid plaques in the brain have sharpened the need for alternative strategies,” study researcher Dr. Paul B. Rosenberg, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement.
But “this is a very different approach, whereby we are trying to enhance the function of the brain mechanically,” he added. “It’s a whole new avenue for potential treatment for a disease becoming all the more common with the aging of the population.”